Turkish President Erdogan skips mention of Kashmir at UN; focuses on Gaza

NEW YORK: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not mention Kashmir in his address at the United Nations General Assembly this year, the first time he has skipped the issue since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

The focus of his 35-minute speech on Tuesday was on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where over 40,000 people have died in Israeli attacks against Hamas.

After India scrapped the special status Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed under the Constitution in 2019, Erdogan has referred to Kashmir every year in his address to world leaders at the UNGA session here, while advocating talks between New Delhi and Islamabad.

However, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry insisted that Turkiye’s stance on the Kashmir issue remains unchanged, The Dawn newspaper reported.

Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a weekly media briefing that “any undue inferences” should not be drawn from one statement.

Baloch said that Turkiye has “a consistent and principled position” on the dispute.

Erdogan's skipping of the Kashmir reference is being seen as an apparent shift in Turkiye's stance and comes at a time when the country is trying to become a member of the BRICS grouping.

India is among the founder members of the group, which is holding another summit next month.

Former Pakistani diplomat Maleeha Lodhi, who has also served as her country’s ambassador to the UN, commented on the apparent shift in Turkiye's stance.

"Unlike the last 5 years, President Erdogan did not mention Kashmir in his speech to the UN General Assembly. He did that in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023," she posted on X.

Erdogan, an ally of Pakistan, has in the past repeatedly raked up the Kashmir issue, causing a strain in relations between India and Turkiye.

"Another development that will pave the way for regional peace, stability and prosperity in South Asia will be the establishment of a just and lasting peace in Kashmir through dialogue and cooperation between India and Pakistan,” Erdogan had said in his address during the General Debate at the UN last year.

India in the past has termed his remarks as "completely unacceptable", saying Turkiye should learn to respect the sovereignty of other nations and reflect on its policies more deeply.

In his address at the UNGA this year, Erdogan drew the international community's attention to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza, accusing the UN of failing to stop the deaths of civilians.

"The world is bigger than five," he repeated his well-known remark, about the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

"Gaza has become the largest cemetery for children and women in the world," he said, urging Western countries, including the US and major European Union countries, to act to stop the killings.